our privacy and consumer rights are heading South

Stores and big business corporations are having a field day with us.

Be warned...I purchased a 16 GB Sandisk flash drive on sale at Best Buy. Then I read bad reports on this unit and went to return it to the store. Even though it was unopened and I had the original receipt, they demanded my "photo ID" as part of the refund process. No if's, and's or but's! Of course, that all goes into their database to be hacked into some day by some 12 year old whiz kid and then sold on the Black Market to outfits who compile information.

I clearly won't be shopping at Best Buy anymore!

Are you all also aware that every company that you call using their 800 # can read their caller ID to learn WHO you are and your telephone #. They then take further information from you by asking innocent questions (May I have your name so I can log in this call? Is this your home phone # you're calling from? What # can we call you back on in case we get disconnected? Have you ever called here before? What products do you own? etc). In short, many of us are on company computer databases all over the country. This data eventually gets compiled into one huge database containing almost everything one needs to know about you.

So.....don't think you're remaining anonymous if you don't give your name and phone # to whatever company you're calling. They'll have it (AND all your records) before they even pick up the phone as their computers will read your # and pull up all information the person answering the phone needs to know.

What then happens is your details are sold on to someone in Mumbia India and someone from there will ring you and tell you they are from Microsoft and you have a problem on your PC, if you are stupid enough to believe them and some folk are they will have you credit card number off you and rip you for around £500 for a usless interent security package, they will by then have your credit card details and you will be scammed again later. Mostly these are scams from countries you give millions of dollars in aid. The internet has become a very good educational tool for the wrong reason, as you get older you need to get a bit smarter.

Best Buy are the least of your worries.
Your wall street protests are being echoed all over the world, yet the mass media does not cover this. The powers that be are very busy suppressing you and the other 99% of the worlds population.

Regards
James.

Ahhhhh....but right now I'm concerned and worried about my privacy being invaded everyplace I go.....and.....my information being compiled every place I go.

I'm also concerned about my consumer status. I forgot to mention Best Buy also "reserves the right to refuse" a refund...similar to the Target policy.

And also I didn't mention the extended warranty I bought at Guitar Center to cover a musical instrument purchase. When the item broke, I found out my warranty didn't give me the refund price that I was promised, but DID give me a "gift certificate" for another GC purchase.

That with the Caller ID situation going on.....it's only a matter of time before THIS gets out of control also, and you have your "Consumer protests and sit-ins."

I'm feeling rather insignificant these days. And waiting for the day when GC and Sam Ash see what Best Buys is doing with their rather unconventional return policy and copies it.

I can see me buying a Tyros or a PA3Xpro and getting stuck with it....."sorry, sir......you should have read our "no refunds policy" before you purchased...it was in clear view in the rest room and pasted on the ceiling!

Mark

All i know is that Democracy and Capitalism ruined this world and our lives.
My grandfather was very old and (i wont call it stupid) but very uneducated
man. When i was a kid in 1989 before he died since then he foretold the coming
of the Webcam, he said many times ''A day will come when you see who you talking
to even if the person is in America'' at the time my uncle was here.
Also he said ''What you see on the news everyday about this Democracy and Capitalism,
i feel very sorry for you kids, your lives wont be as easy as they seem not, soon
everything will be ruined...BOTH of these things i actually live thru nowadays.
I personally was never a believer in Democracy and Capitalism, since they both
cary a double edged sword, i believe human beings should be controlled, not live
in democracy since in many fields we are worst then animals. We are the only kinds
of life form that actually kill for pleasure or out of stupidity, no animal does that,
they will kill only in need for food or fear/defense. This might sound of topic but
it is so very much in the topic. Whatever Marc experienced it is part of this so called
Democracy and Capitalism...we just dont realise we live in a dictatorship, we are too
obsessed with their distractions that they provided/fixed for us.
But some people are not stupid anymore, they are waking up.

I don’t expect to see a world in which there would be no theft, aggression, or coercion.

But, it would be refreshing to live in one in which no agency of coercion (the government) had the acceptance of most of the people around me.

Dealing with an agency of coercion would be much easier if you didn't have to cope also with “law-abiding” neighbors
who act as unpaid functionaries of the state.

The "art" of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.


Ian

Thanks for your replies, guys, but I would appreciate if this topic didn't drift off into world politics and stayed on topic about the issues I wrote about.

I'm curious how others feel about what I wrote, or if anyone is even aware?

Mark

Mark, you are right but it is very hard to stay of other subjects too since that all falls
into this subject, your problem that you had experienced (and we all do) is actually brought
to us ONLY by politics and nothing else. Your problem cannot be isolated and discussed without
actually entering politics, we all know that that BB policy and also other companies policies
are actually cuz of THE POLITICS.

Hmmm. I don’t think you get it. You already lost the one thing your worried about loosing many years ago.

The laws that came in after 9/11 are a billion dollar business now and it's all about taking away your rights to privacy and then some....

Jesse Ventura once said:
Whenever the govermenet tells you ''we are trying to keep you safe''
get ready, you will lose your freedom...and he was right. We did, almost all.
For the sake of Fake Terorism that doesnt exist, we lost everything.
I know, it still Sounds off topic but it is not, this Topic is very complicated
and EVERYTHING to do with Politics.

I take it back.......you guys are on the mark. I stepped back after I read what you wrote. It IS part of the bigger picture. Not sure if it's a by-product or a "main course."

The Caller ID issue has been going on for at least 10 years now. That's how long I've been tracking it. I can't even call a movie theater chain to see what's playing without their computer answering and telling me what # I'm calling from and do I want a film listing in my zip code area? They then tell me what that zip code is.

I contacted the FCC and the ACLU about it. FCC said send them an email (of course, so they could have more info about me!) and the ACLU said they were "too busy with other issues!"

But...I DO feel a little better now knowing that I'm not alone in seeing what's going on around me!

Mark

I gotta agree with you James .... I think we have all missed jumping off the wagon so long ago .... not like we ever got the choice. I doubt if showing ID to Guitar Center really changes anything in anyone's life that hasn't already happened. Not to say I approve of it, but I don't think it means anything in the big picture.

And don't expect this to get better. It won't. As technology becomes more and more integrated into our everyday life our privacy will continue to decay. That is the future and there is really no way of stopping it. I don't stress over it as it is unavoidable. I simply try to minimize the amount of info I give away. If Guitar Center require too much info the choice is simply to stop buying from Guitar Center ... or live with it. There is no in between.

Related;
I have no knowledge of this; it’s just what I heard on the radio while driving.

The Department of Motor Vehicles is selling our information to outside businesses. Their take last year was a little over 2 million dollars. The one stipulation is that the buyers are not allowed to directly solicit from the list.

That leaves ???? a bit of doubt and more loss of our rights.

John C.